Term 3

Making moving images is one of my favourite classes. At the beginning I didn’t even know what to do, then I thought of some unexpected film clips on tik tok and I realised that music is usually one of the most important parts of a moving image. So I started looking for music after I discussed with my fellow student, Aubrey, the choice of self as the theme. I was looking for music that was storytelling and had a rhythm to it so that I could follow the rhythm of the edit. The videos on my phone are usually videos of me having fun at a night out, and Aubrey’s phone is basically full of selfies. So I had to use the videos on my phone as the bulk of the moving image and then choose two of Aubrey’s videos as additional footage. During the editing process I found that the footage I used was very much in line with the theme of my zine, ‘Youth’, probably because we are in the ‘Youth’ phase. I also tried to emphasise the atmosphere rather than the image when making the moving image, and I was pleased with the final result.

When doing the PR package I wanted to showcase the photos that best brought out the style of my zine, so I tried a lot of different photos, but some of them looked great on their own, but didn’t match the style when put together. I used a variety of different photos to match and came up with my two favourite PR packages.

When I started planning the PR event for my magazine, I was struggling because the theme of my magazine was ‘Youth’ and I felt that it didn’t fit in with the Barbican style and I didn’t know how to reflect the feeling of youth. Then I thought about the elements of youth: firstly, who you want to be (when you grow up), secondly, who you really are and who you show to others (with a mask on), and thirdly, friendships that don’t make sense. I came up with a project that would reflect these three themes. The idea is that everyone puts on the person they want to be or dresses up in clothes they wouldn’t normally dare to wear and communicates with others, eventually guessing who each other are. This plan focuses on being your true self and communicating with others.

The second idea is that youth is like a flower blooming at every moment instead of being inferior, and that youth is about recklessness. So the second PR event was to use mirrors and cameras to record every happy moment of different people to guide and remind others.

I came up with five titles for the zine and a tagline that I thought would best fit my zine

In the second week we started to think about how to do a PR event and the teacher gave us a zine that the students had done in previous year and asked us to discuss as a group about the PR event that could be use with this zine.This Zine book is about imagining the future of technology, Ai and love in a kind of paradox. So our group thought of a PR event that went for a sense of technology as well as a kind of laboratory coldness.

Next I did a PR event to showcase and promote the concept of zine as I understood it: humans and techies.I used #TheTrumanShow and #Exmanchina as hashtags because I thought of these two films when I was reading the magazine and they were the inspiration for the PR event I did.

I chose some photos that I thought were good to do some editing.
The one of me leaning back on the stairs is one of my favourites from the Barbican shoot. I think it captures the sense of fearlessness in the subject matter and in post I found that increasing the contrast made it more impactful. The symmetry of the mirror and the addition of the seagulls gave the photos a free and wild look. In the end I made the photo mirror symmetrical to give it more impact.The last photo of me leaning on the stairs to annotate the shot was edited for me by Carlyn.I hadn’t thought about reversing the photo or cropping it to make it more focused, but Carlyn’s editing gave the photo the magic of making eye contact with the viewer.

The second image is about the details of the cheongsam, I used three different filters to think of how to make the image more special finally I think the second red filter and the third filter are more special. The second filter was an unexpected match, while the third filter was more in keeping with the qualities of the cheongsam.

The third and fourth sets of photos that follow are all different poses of photos I took on the same step. I used a wide angle to make the stairs appear higher. At first I wanted to make the third group symmetrical but I tried a number of different filters and found that they didn’t look the way I wanted them to, so I simply rotated and cropped the photo and found that a simple edit made this photo look better.

I didn’t edit the rest of the set too much, just used different filters, as some of the photos already looked good without a lot of tweaking.

Before going to the Barbican, I had a lot of thoughts in my head about what to wear for the photos to show a ‘Youth’ attitude. I chose a cheongsam to go with the Barbican’s rugged theme, as the cheongsam represents sophistication and the Barbican’s style is the complete opposite, with a strong contrast between the two styles. This would fit in with the ‘Youth’ theme where I wanted to reflect the rebellious spirit of youth and the impact of youthful ideals and reality.

(Test Shot)

I chose to use exaggerated poses to show the visual impact on the viewer, while many of my photographs use wide angles to exaggerate the rebelliousness and specificity that the photographs represent.

In the first week we started working on the concept board in class ，for me I already had a clear idea of what I wanted to do with my zine, the theme I was working on was ‘Youth’. I wanted to show a lot of young people’s lives in a darker tone, such as games, alcohol, tobacco, dreams and love. These are the important elements that I consider to be the key words of youth. So the photos I used in the concept board are all related to these keywords.I chose a hand-drawn font in the image to show a rebellious and casual feel, and the ‘Youth’ in the centre of the image takes up a large area to highlight my theme, which is more obvious with the dark red font.

The theme of “Self” can be interpreted differently by different people, because everyone has a different ways to grow and a different way of thinking. I have been thinking for a long time about how Zine should present “Self”. What I came up with was that I wanted to show what I and others had experienced when they growing up, to remind modern young people that they can find their true selves and the freedom of their souls.

My concept for the magazine was to show a lot of the state of the youth of today and what I see in society. Because of the fast-paced society, young people nowadays spend too much time on false socializing and soul-less vanity. I don’t believe this is their true self. False socializing leads to unfounded rumors, untrustworthy friendships, and cowardly people who are afraid to voice their opinions. Vanity is not a bad thing, but the pursuit of materialistic and superficial things can overlook what is really going on in the heart. At the same time, many people at this age will make fun of people who are different from them, and many people do not know how to respect and will denigrate those they do not like behind their backs. These criticisms lead to many people being afraid to show their true selves and to feelings of inferiority and weakness. In my ideal utopia, everyone should live happily and without fear, not with a mask. Everyone should shine brightly and respect everyone who is different from themselves.

So far, the concept of ‘Self’ is based on the different stages of my growth, as each person grows up with different pursuits leading to a different self. I want to be happy, strong, never regret the decisions I make, respect everyone around me and be kind. To be young, to make mistakes, and to have the courage to take responsibility for what you do. These are the same requirements that I wanted to create a magazine that would make others think about their own lives, what they are looking for, and the courage to express themselves by resonating with young people.

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